Fake astronaut love-scammer cons elderly woman into handing over thousands so he could ‘buy oxygen’ because his ‘space ship was under attack and had run out’
An elderly Japanese woman was swindled out of thousands of dollars after falling in love online with a self-described astronaut who sought her help to avert a spaceship crisis, police said Tuesday.
The hapless woman in Japan’s northern Hokkaido island met the fraudster in July on social media who claimed to be a male astronaut, a local police officer told AFP, describing the case as a ‘romance scam’.
After some exchanges, the scammer one day told her he was ‘in space on a spaceship right now’ but was ‘under attack and in need of oxygen’, the official said.
The scammer then urged her to pay him online to help him buy oxygen, and successfully hoodwinked around 1 million yen (£5,023).
The woman lives alone and started developing feelings for him as their online communication progressed, local media including Hokkaido Broadcasting said, quoting investigative sources.
‘If a person you met on social media ever demanded cash from you, please be suspicious of the possibility of scam, and report to police’, the official said.
Japan has the world’s second-oldest population after Monaco, according to the World Bank, and older people frequently fall prey to various forms of organised fraud.
These include the classic ‘it’s me’ scam, where perpetrators impersonate family members in trouble to extract money from the victim.
An elderly Japanese woman was swindled out of thousands of dollars after falling in love online with a self-described astronaut who sought her help to avert a spaceship crisis. File photo: Astronaut on rock surface with space background
The scammer urged her to help him buy oxygen, and successfully hoodwinked around £5,023
Similar crimes are also on the rise in the UK, according to Action Fraud, which says as much as £92 million is lost to romance fraud in Britain each year.
The organisation says that the Valentine’s Day and Christmas Day periods are the most common times to fall victim to this type of crime.
Elderly people can also be cajoled into using ATMs to get non-existent ‘refunds’ of their insurance premiums or pensions, police have warned.
It comes three years after a 65-year-old Japanese woman was scammed of £27,350 by a man claiming to be a Russian astronaut in Space who needed the money to fly back to Earth to marry her.
The pair began chatting on Instagram in June 2022.
The man shortly began telling the unnamed woman that he was in love with her and wanted to marry her, and that he wanted to move to Japan so they could start their new life together.
The woman sent 4.4 million yen £27,350) to her apparent husband-to-be after he said he needed the money to cover the cost of a rocket and landing fees to return to Earth so the pair could tie the knot.
The woman reported the space cowboy to police after she eventually grew suspicious.
